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What is polyurethane concrete lifting?

Posted Mar 31, 2021 in Concrete Raising

In short, polyurethane foam is the fastest, most cost-effec­tive and Eco-friend­ly solu­tion to lift­ing sunken, cracked con­crete. The polyurethane foam sys­tem com­bines the age-old tech­nique of mud­jack­ing with mod­ern knowl­edge and tech­nol­o­gy. Instead of using a mix­ture of con­crete and mud, this state-of-the-art approach uti­lizes high-den­si­ty polyurethane foam that expands in the voids beneath the sink­ing, cracked con­crete to lift back to a lev­el position.

The Proven Solution

The con­crete set­tle­ment is caused by changes in the mois­ture con­tent and den­si­ty of the soils beneath a con­crete slab. Whether it be poor­ly com­pact­ed fill soils, a drought, or ero­sion, these changes cre­ate voids beneath the slab which even­tu­al­ly cause the con­crete to crack, break and sink.

This is a very sig­nif­i­cant prob­lem com­mon­ly seen in con­crete foun­da­tion slabs, dri­ve­ways, park­ing lots, patios, side­walks, and oth­er walk­ways. The typ­i­cal signs of con­crete set­tle­ment are deep cracks, trip haz­ards, and pool­ing water.

The major­i­ty of prop­er­ty own­ers think that the only solu­tion is the time­ly, and cost­ly task of remov­ing and then recon­struct­ing the cracked or sunken con­crete. In con­trary, the cost-effec­tive, polyurethane foam sys­tem offers the abil­i­ty to repair and lift the dam­aged slab back to its orig­i­nal lev­el in the short­est amount of time.

Advan­tages of Polyurethane Foam

1. Few­er holes to drill saves a lot of time
2. Small­er ​“Pen­ny Sized” holes reduce patchwork
3. Light­weight… only 4 lbs. per cubic yard opposed to the 120 lbs of mudjacking
4. Imme­di­ate turn­around… walk or dri­ve on 15 min­utes after installation
5. Envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly… made with 100% recy­cled materials
6. Cost effec­tive… min­i­mal labor and com­plete in one day
7. Non-Inva­sive… no need for reconstruction
8. Non-Dis­rup­tive… no heavy, loud equip­ment involved
9. Year-round instal­la­tion in any weath­er condition
10. Reduces trip haz­ards and restores prop­er­ty value

Can also be used for Addi­tion­al Support

When used for lift­ing or lev­el­ing con­crete foun­da­tion slabs, polyurethane foam may require addi­tion­al sup­port such as heli­cal piers. This is because ​“foam lift­ing” doesn’t cor­rect the under­ly­ing issue of soil con­di­tions which caused the foun­da­tion or slab to move. The addi­tion­al sup­port helps achieve per­ma­nent struc­ture sta­bil­i­ty to elim­i­nate the pos­si­bil­i­ty of future foun­da­tion damage.

4 Step Instal­la­tion Process

Instal­la­tion involves drilling small (pen­ny sized) holes into the dam­aged slab using the spe­cial­ly designed equip­ment. Struc­tur­al grade poly­mer is then inject­ed into the voids beneath the con­crete. Once the voids are filled, the expand­ing prop­er­ties of the polyurethane allow for an accu­rate lift and lev­el­ing of the slab. Last­ly, the small holes are grout­ed and sealed, leav­ing the slab com­plete­ly restored.

Step 1. Small 5/​8‑in. holes are bored through the sunken slab.

Step 2. An injec­tor port is installed in each hole.

Step 3. High-den­si­ty foam is inject­ed into the port where­upon it expands and lifts the slab.

Step 4. With the port removed, the holes are cleaned and patched with cement.

Restore Your Prop­er­ty Value

In today’s mar­ket, any real estate pro­fes­sion­al will tell you the dif­fi­cul­ties of sell­ing a prop­er­ty with cracked, sunken con­crete. And if left untreat­ed, the price of a prop­er­ty may have to be dis­count­ed by up to 30% to sell. This amount is often far greater than the cost of the polyurethane repair. In short, you are sav­ing mon­ey by address­ing your con­crete prob­lems right away.